Self-starter for internal-explosion engines.



. M. D. COMPTON.

SELF STARTER FOR INTERNAL EXPLOSION ENGINES.

APPLICATION FILED 0017.4. 1913.

1,128,173. Patented Dec. 29, 1914.

3 SHEETS-SHEET l.

M. D. COMPTON.

SELF STARTER FOR INTERNAL EXPLOSION ENGINES.

- APPLICATION PlLED OCT. 4, 1913. 1 1 23, 1 73., Patented Dec. 29, 1914.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2 M. D. COMPTON.

SELF STARTER FOR INTERNAL EXPLOSION ENGINES.

APPLICATION FILED 0014. 1913.

Patented Dec. 29, 1914.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

MELVIN D. COMPTON, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

SELF-STARTER FOE- INTERN'AL-EXPLOSION ENGINES. 7

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 29, 1914.

Application filed October 4. 1913. Serial No. 793,268.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MELVIN D. COMPTON, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Self-Starter for Internal- Explosion Engines, of which thefollowing is a specification.

The principal objects of the present invention are, first, to provide a self-contained and compact pneumatic rotary self-starter for internal explosion engines; second, to permit of hand cranking or starting; third, to insure response by the starter to its control; fourth, to cause the starter to operate successfully against compression in the engine cylinder and to withstand the action of back-fire whenever it. may occur; fifth, to make the starter independent of and not affected by the starting of the engine under its own power and.the consequent movement of its parts; sixth, to avoid strain or reaction stress between the starter andiengine when they are coupled together; seventh, to

cause the self-starter to remain quiet and at The invention will 'be claimed at the end hereof but will be first described in connection with the embodiment of it chosen for illustration in the accompanying drawings in which- Figure 1, is a side view, partly in section,

of parts of an automobile equipped or fitted,

with a self-starter, embodying features of the invention. Fig. 2, is a view drawn to 'an enlarged scale and showing in horizontal section a portion of the self-starter. Fig. 3, is a front view with parts removed and other parts shown in section. Fig. 4, is a transverse sectional view. Fig. 5, is a horizontal sectional view, and Fig. 6, is a sectional view taken on the line 6,-6 of Fig. 5.

In the drawings 1, is an internal explosion.

engine and in order to start it it has to be spun and the effects of compression and back-fire have to be taken care of.

.gine shaft.

2, is the engine shaft.

3, is a starting shaft which has to be coupled with the engine shaft to start the engine and then rapidly and continuously rotated until the engine starts on its own power and finally disconnected from the en- The beveled ratchet clutch 4, and its pin 5, are interposed between the starting and engine shafts.

6, is an air tank or reservoir.

' 7, is an air pump or compressor driven by the engine and operating to accumulate or maintain a supply of air under pressure in the tank 6, when the engine is running by its own power. The pump 7 is shown as connected with one of the engine cylinders and operated by the explosion that occurs therein.

8, is a pipe connecting the pump and tank.

'9, is a starting cylinder adapted to receive air from the tank 6, by way of the connection 10, which is controlled as by a foot valve 11. Thisstarting cylinder 9, is provided with a piston 12, which can be reciprocated by air fromthe tank 6. Rollerratchet-mechanism is employed for converting reciprocation of the, starting piston into continuous rotation of the starting shaft 3,- in one direction and for preventing counterrotation which might be brought about should the engine back-fire and for permitting the engine to be cranked byhand as will be explained.

13, is a housing connected with the cylinder 9, for inclosing the parts, and this hous-- ing and the cylinder 9'are shown-as connected by means of a bracket 14 with the frame of the automobile. The piston rod 15, is provided with a fork, the arms 16 and 17 of which work in guides in the housing 13. The fork arm 16 turns the roller-ratchet ring 18 back and forth and the fork arm 17 turns the roller-ratchet ring 19 back and forth. The roller-ratchet rings are mounted around the roller-ratchet hub 20, shown as made in two parts connected together and provided with end flanges 21, which is a convenient construction for inserting the rollers 22 and 23, and retaining them in place. The notches for the-sets of rollers 22 and 23, are similarly disposed so that when the piston is moving toward the bottom of the sheet in Fig. 3, the fork arm 16 and the ring 18 and the rollers 22, are driving the hub 20 in clockwise direction and the other set of roller-ratchet-mechanism is idle.

WVhen the piston is moving in the other direction the fork arm 17 ring 19 and rollers 23, are driving the hub 20 in a clockwise direction and the other set of roller-ratchetmeehanism is idle, thus the hub part is continuously rotated in one direction at high speed by a succession of .impulses. The

notches in disks 18 and 19 are staggered to insure inside end closure of each notch by the opposite disk. Furthermore aback-fire which would tend to turn the hub 20 counter-clockwise or the starting up of the en.- gine with its fly-wheel effect which might tend to speed up the hub-in clockwise direction do not throw the roller-ratchet-mechanism or any of its parts outof time and do not interfere in any way, with their subsequent operation. The roller ratchet device which is not doing the driving operates to prevent counter-clockwise movement of the hub in the event of a back-fire. There is a spring-actuated-trigger release valve gear which in combination with the roller ratchet mechanism that prevents retrograde or backward turning of the starting shaft,compels the starting piston to make complete strokes independent of the state of compresslon in the'engine cylinders and without requiring any fly-wheel"efl'ect.

24, is a slide valve for connecting the inlet port 25, with either of the cylinder ports 26 or 27 todrive the piston in one direction or the other. It also connects the cylinder ports 26 and 27 with-the exhaust ports 28 and 29, as is well understood. The spindle 30, of this valve is provided with fixed enlargements or heads 31 and 32, having their inner ends beveled and their outer ends shouldered. On the spindle and between the heads there are two loose collars 33 and 34, with a spring 35 between them. Loose onthe spindle is a housing 36, the ends of which inclose the collars 33 and 34. A tappet arm 37, movable with the piston and connected for example with the fork arm 17, strikes the ends of thehousing 36. There are spring detents 38 and 39, carried by some fixed part of the-device andadapted respectively to ride on the heads 31 and 32 and to engage the shouldered ends thereof. In any case the next movement of the valve 24, is restrained by one of the spring catches until the housing 36, acting on one of the collars has compressed the spring 35, andthereafter released the catch, thus permitting the valve to make its movementunder the action of the spring whereupon it is locked by the other catch. For example in Fig. 3, the piston is moving upward and the next movement of the valve will be upward. The catch 38, engages the shoulder of the head 31. The arm 37, acting on the up er end of the housing 36, will cause the housing to compress the spring35, and then the end of the housing releases the latch 38, with against downward movement until'a repetition of the described movements but in the opposite direction has been completed.

' 40, is a sleeve uponwhich the hub part 20, is fast, and the shaft 3, extends through and is movable endwise in this sleeve.

41, is a coupling pinned to the shaft 3, and having sliding connection with the sleeve by means of. the hexagonal shape of the cou pling and of the part of the sleevewhich it receives. Rotation of the hub 20; is transmitted to the shaft 3, through the sleeve and coupling andthe coupling permits endwise motion of the shaft 3, in respect to the sleeve. This endwise motion permits; the parts 4 and 5, to be engaged and dlsengaged. Evidently the shaft 3, can be pushed by means of a hand crank toward the rlght in' Fig. 2, into engagement with the clutch member 4, against the force of the spring 50, which acts against a fixed collar on the car.

42, is a pneumatic piston opposed by a spring 43, and limited in its motion by a stop 44. This piston acts on the coupling 41, and in a cylinder 45, to which air 1s admitted from the tank 6, by way of the connection 46, whenever the valve 11,- 1s

opened and from which air exhausts when the valvell, is closed by reason of leakage, for example at the valve 24. Air is admitted .to the cylinder 45, slightly ahead of its admission to the cylinder 9. When air is admitted to the cylinder 45, it projects the piston 42, and the shaft 3, against the springs 43 and 50, thus coupling the shaft 3, with the. engine shaft. The stop 44, prevents the piston 42 from exerting stress or strain between the engine shaft and the selfstarter. In this way the self-starter is coushaft 3, from the engine so that the starter remains at rest and quiet. The engine can be started by a crank applied to the front end of the shaft 3, which is pushed back so as to engage the engine shaft' When the foot valve 11, is pushed, air reaches the piston 42, and pushes the shaft 3, back into engagement with the engine shaft, but end pressure is not exerted thereon because the stop at 44, prevents such action. Air also reaches the cylinder 9, and starts thepiston 12. This piston continues to make rapid and full strokes, being compelled so to do by the trigger-released-spring-actuated valve spin for admitting air from the tank to the pneu dle. The complete strokes of the piston 12, are imparted to the shaft 3, as continuous rotary motion in one'direction regardless of back-fires, cylinder compression and the like by the roller-ratchet mechanism. When the engine has started, the foot valve 11 is released, the spring 43 disengages the selfstarter from the engine shaft and the starter comes to rest.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that modifications maybe made in 'de'- tails of construction and arrangement'without departing from the spirit of the invention, hence the latter is not limitedasto those matters.

What I claim is:. v 1 1. A pneumatic self-starter comprising the combination of a starter shaft to be started and rapidly andcontinuously rotated and which is provided with a'clutch member, an air tank, a starting cylinder and piston operatively connected with the tank, roller ratchet mechanism for converting recipro-' cation of the piston into continuous rotation ofthe'starting shaft in one direction and for preventing counter-rotation, springactuated-trigger-release valve gear operated by the reciprocation of the piston and compelling the same to'make complete strokes,

spring retracted pneumatic means having a limiting stop and adapted to project and retract the starting clutch member, and means matic means and starting cylinder and for excluding air from both, substantially as described.

2. In a self-starter the combination of a starting piston and cylinder, a starting shaft, valve gear operated by the pistonfor compelling it to make full strokes in each direction, and mechanism interposed ,between the shaftand piston for converting. reciprocations of the piston into continuous rotary motion in one, direction of the shaft tween the arms of, the fork, a sleeve through shaft extending through the housing bewhich the shaftis movable, ahub on the sleeve, roller-ratchet rings and their'rollin bodies mounted on the hub and connecte respectively with the fork arms of the pis-' ton to convert reciprocation thereof into rotation of the sleeve, a collar, a couphngv cylinder formed at the rear ofthe housing and provided with a spring retracted piston and with a stop for the piston, a coupling slidably and rotatably connected with the sleeve and fast on: the starting shaft and in range of the coupling piston, and spring actuated trigger release valve gear for the starting piston arranged inside of the housing, and means connected with the starting piston for -actuating'said valve gear.

MELVIN D. COMRTON. Witnesses I CLIFFORD, K. CAssnL, FRANK E. FRENCH. 

